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Ryans team won because of the way they interpreted the prompt and brought both emotion and logic into the debate whereas the other team only had research to back them up. They were more convincing and memorable.

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Ryans team utilized a well-known film, the wizard of oz, but an alternate version with a diverse cast in order to bring home his point about diversity in debate. He brought both logic and emotion into his debate while making it relatable to others

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Northwestern had a decent amount of research to back up their argument, but they weren't nearly as persuasive as the other team which is a big part of debate. This all had to be considered and took the judge nearly an hour to finally decide that Ryans team won.

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Ryans final argument was not scripted but from the heart about how he truly felt about his side of debate which encapsules the true goals of debate.

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The significance of Ryans team going to this tournament

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The significance of Ryans team going to this tournament

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The National debate tournament was one of the biggest of the year with over 78 teams competing. Most notably an all black team had never gotten past quarter finals, so it was incredibly important for them to make it to finals.

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Northwestern had been the champions of this debate tournament for 14 years and the panel of judges were entirely white which made the win of Ryan and his teammates so significant.

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Why wasn't Ryan triumphant about his win

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Why wasn't Ryan triumphant about his win

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Ryan didnt feel triumphant about his win as one might expect considering he had literally made debate history as he wanted to remain focused. There was still so much to be done in the world of debate

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Many African American teams were finding it difficult to advance to the higher levels that white teams were able to reach for a number of reasons. In Ryans teams championship debate against NW and many other debate panels, all of the judges were white.

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Ryans team decided to focus more on the idea of home. Specifically, if minorities are able to find an accepting home within the debate community.

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The topic placed before both teams was whether or not the United States federal government should increase incentives for certain forms of alternative energies.

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Northwestern was in charge of arguing against alternative forms of energy and chose a technique called topicality which basically means there is a question that the other team, Ryans team, has neglected to answer. Along with using research over emotion, a more traditional approach.

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They really drove their point home by arguing that Ryans style of debate was not only incorrect but downright disrespectful to the debate community and all the hours they had spent on it.

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Northwestern was assigned in arguing against alternative energy

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Ryans team was assigned in taking the side of affirmative for alternative energy.

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Ryans team winning made history and was most definity the beginning of changes coming in the world of debate, but it is not the end of the road. The next year brought another first, two black women winning the same competition, but it also brought increasingly bad backlash with some schools wanted to go so far as to create their own "traditional" debate league.

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The Louisville project was created at the University of Louisville in order to foster a safe and encouraging environment for African Americans to participate in Debate.

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Ryans team chose to address and fight back against the prejudice they faced in debate by forcing the conversation to address the issues more pressing than say the environment. By addressing race as the forefront of their argument rather then the intended debate topic, they are working to change the state of debate in order to allow more inclusivity.

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Ryans teams use of the idea of his home being debate despite the fact that he's had to claw his way there was very effective especially when he brought in the familiar idea od dorothy.

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Why pure counterargument didn't win as it usually does.

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Why pure counterargument didn't win as it usually does.

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Althought the style Northwestern chose was normally a favorite of the judges and debate community, the techniques that the Louisville style use are simply so effective it is undeniable. It brings forth all of the downsides and weaknesses of the other team's argument and forces the judges to see the racial divides still present in the world of debate which will bring about awareness and hopefully change.

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Ryan agreed with a point made by Robert that is almost felt that his win was by chance and not due to his talent which he stated made him felt lonely but at the same time inspired to keep pushing against forces that told him and African American debaters everywhere that their talent was accidental.